alo congratulations on achieving your weight loss goal. I weighed 225 pounds and lost 50 pounds over a period of 3 years. Losing 50 pounds improved my cycling abilities and enjoyment of riding. Prior to losing the weight I was uncomfortable riding my road bike with my hands in the drops of the drop down handlebars. With a small belly I can now ride comfortably in the drops for my whole ride. Weighing less has increased my average speed and allowed me to better tackle hills especially on my mountain bike.
I love food and I always tended to eat oversize portions and second servings and I often enjoyed a lot of high carb and high fat food. My doctor told me I was nearly considered obese and said I was starting to get high blood pressure and my cholesterol was too high. I was given the choice of taking blood pressure and cholesterol medicines or losing weight. I did not want to take medicine.
I decided it was time to take control of and improve my health. I made lifestyle changes rather than going on a traditional diet. I went on the basis that weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise.
I base my diet on 3 areas: quantity, quality and velocity. I do this with a few simple rules. As far as quantity I only allow a proper amount of food and no second servings because at the end of the day it's all about calories eaten versus burned. For quality I eat a diet high in fiber with lots of fruit and vegetables, and lean meat mostly chicken and fish. As for velocity I try to eat more slowly and enjoy every bite of the food. When I was losing weight I restricted intake of bread, pasta and fried foods which are some of my favorite foods. Now I have a little of these on occasion in my diet but I normally go for the healthy option 99% of the time and I have kept the weight off for 3 years since I lost it.
For exercise I now do 20 to 30 minutes of stretching, calisthenics, yoga every morning which allows me to hop on my bike any time and be ready to ride.
My doctor is seriously impressed with the results as my cholesterol and blood pressure are fine and I achieved it without medicine.